There are different types of bosses in different organizations, so it seems that the question of whether the boss is good depends on the individual preferences of employees. As for me, I think that I lean more to consider myself a conservative person, so it is always hard for me to adjust to radical changes. Paul Thornton indicates that managers maintain stable operation of existing structures, while leaders tend to initiate change (Video4Good, 2018). Thus, I prefer bosses who have more managerial skills rather than leadership. Such a person I had when I worked as a restaurant employee. Our boss tended to smoothly modernize the existing operation structures while the whole system remained intact. Measuring it on a 10-point scale, this boss had 7 points for management skills and 3 for leadership initiatives.
Concerning the sources of power, legitimacy is the most convincing type. Legitimate power is an authority that is given to a person upon mutual agreement among staff. If the power is legitimate, employees will feel accountability and respect. Imagining the situation where the power proceeds from an illegitimate source, it seems that it will generate chaos and an absence of efficiency. The reason is that employees will feel that the organizational settings do not satisfy their perception of a comfortable workplace.
Political behavior refers to the existence of indirect and hidden influences on the distribution of rewards and punishments (Judge & Robbins, 2017). These influences go beyond the formal requirements of some organizational roles. In reality, such processes exist in almost every organization. Different rumors and whistle-blowing influence the decision-making in almost every company in a negative way. At the same time, organizational structure can be constructed in such a way that will reduce the manifestation of power through internal politics. It is a call for modern management researchers to identify the tools to eliminate or adjust political behavior.
References
Judge, T. A., & Robbins, S. P. (2017). Essentials of organizational behavior. Pearson Education.
Video4Good. (2018). Manager Vs. leader – Paul Thornton [Video]. YouTube. Web.